This episode demonstrates that even a high-ranking Starfleet officer is subject to pursuing his own agenda in violation of Federation regulations. Admiral Eric Pressman (Terry O'Quinn) was Commander Riker's (Jonathan Frakes) very first commanding officer on the USS Pegasus twelve years earlier, with both surviving the assumed destruction of their vessel during some sort of altercation in space. Shadowy reports of mutiny on the part of the crew against Pressman were glossed over in the Federation record, with a young Ensign Riker standing by his superior in a display of loyalty that didn't harm his career. That allegiance is tested in this story when it's learned that Pressman was actually violating the Treaty of Algernon by experimenting with a newly developed cloaking device for the Pegasus. When the Pegasus is discovered hidden deep within the cavern of a huge asteroid, Pressman sees his chance to recover the ship and the cloaking device. There's a bonus aspect to this device as it would allow a vessel to actually proceed through solid matter! Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) of course, won't go for Pressman's faulty logic, and after freeing the Enterprise from its embedded position in the asteroid, has Pressman arrested for violating a Federation treaty. In a noble gesture, Riker considers that he should be arrested too for his past indiscretion, but the Captain felt his twelve years of service more than compensated for the youthful error of an inexperienced ensign. Meanwhile, a Romulan warbird hanging around nearby never had a clue of what was going on with the Enterprise, and consequently did not figure in the final outcome.
Review of The Pegasus
